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Does context or color improve object recognition in patients with low vision?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

MURIEL BOUCART ,
PASCAL DESPRETZ ,
KATRINE HLADIUK  and
THOMAS DESMETTRE
MURIEL BOUCART*
Affiliation:
Lab. Neurosciences Fonctionnelles & Pathologies, Université Lille, Nord de France, CHU Lille, CNRS
PASCAL DESPRETZ
Affiliation:
Lab. Neurosciences Fonctionnelles & Pathologies, Université Lille, Nord de France, CHU Lille, CNRS
KATRINE HLADIUK
Affiliation:
Centre d'Imagerie, de Laser et de Re-adaptation Basse Vision, Clinique d’ophtalmologie, Lambersart
THOMAS DESMETTRE
Affiliation:
Centre d'Imagerie, de Laser et de Re-adaptation Basse Vision, Clinique d’ophtalmologie, Lambersart
*
*Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr Muriel Boucart, CHRU Lille, Hôpital Roger Salengro, service EFV, Lab. Neurosciences Fonctionnelles & Pathologies, CNRS UMR 8160, 59037 Lille, France. E-mail: m-boucart@chru-lille.fr
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Abstract

Most studies on people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have been focused on investigations of low-level processes with simple stimuli like gratings, letters, and in perception of isolated faces or objects. We investigated the ability of people with low vision to analyze more complex stimuli like photographs of natural scenes. Fifteen participants with AMD and low vision (acuity on the better eye <20/200) and 11 normally sighted age-matched controls took part in the study. They were presented with photographs of either colored or achromatic gray level scenes in one condition and with photographs of natural scenes versus isolated objects extracted from these scenes in another condition. The photographs were centrally displayed for 300 ms. In both conditions, observers were instructed to press a key when they saw a predefined target (a face or an animal). The target was present in half of the trials. Color facilitated performance in people with low vision, while equivalent performance was found for colored and achromatic pictures in normally sighted participants. Isolated objects were categorized more accurately than objects in scenes in people with low vision. No difference was found for normally sighted observers. The results suggest that spatial properties that facilitate image segmentation (e.g., color and reduced crowding) help object perception in people with low vision.

Keywords

Low visionMacular degenerationObject recognitionFacesScenesContextColor
Type
Research Articles
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 25 , Issue 5-6 , September 2008 , pp. 685 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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